Upholstery supports



May 21, 1968 Filed May 15, 1966 J. F. SARGINSQN ETAL UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS Fig.1.

4 Sheets-Sheet l lNVE/VTORS J F. SARGIN so;

D.C. MARI-ow May 21, 1968 J. F. SARGINSON ETAL 3,384,148

UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS Filed May 13, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.2.

/Nl/ENTOKS A 33E SARGIHSON D.C. MAR W BY M WW ATTORNEY y 21, 1968 J. F. SARGINSON ETAL 3,384,148

UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS Filed May 13, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOAS 6 ,J.F.$AR6msoN act/MA RLow J5) ATTORNEY May 21, 1968 J. F. SARGINSON ETAL 3,384,148

UPI-IOLSTERY SUPPORTS Filed May 13, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOQS .7. F. SARGINSON DC. MARLOW ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,384,148 UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS John Francis Sarginson, Burton-on-Trent, and Douglas Charles Marlow, Etwall, England, assiguors to Pirelli Limited, London, England, a British company Filed May 13, 1966, Ser. No. 549,864 Claims priority, application Great Britain, May 18, 1965, 20,888/ 65 11 Claims. (Cl. 160-368) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An upholstery support of resilient material having support means attached thereto and with at least two of the side edges being curved outwardly throughout a major portion thereof with respect to one another and to the center point of the support.

Upholstery supports which are manufactured in the form of sheets or platforms have become well known articles .of commerce and the uses of them are becoming more widespread. In the furniture industry (and that is used in its more colloquial sense to indicate the industry which makes chairs, tables, beds and the like as well as in the wider sense which embraces the industry which makes furniture for use in land, sea and air vehicles) there is a requirement for the upholstery support to have four points at which said support can be removably attached to a seat frame for example.

When such a sheet or platform is moulded from an elastomeric material and has straight edges, the tendency is for such edges to become curved inwardly with respect to the centre point of the sheet or platform when such sheet or platform is mounted under tension.

The object of the present invention is to overcome this disadvantage which is undesirable aesthetically and for the reason, for example, that the upholstery material is not supported properly where there is a gap between the edge of the upholstery support and the seat frame.

Accordingly, the present invention consists in an upholstery support which includes a sheet of elastomeric material and four rigid members which constitute a part of the means by which said support is adapted to be attached to a frame, said sheet having been vulcanised .or cured and having been so shaped during said vulcanisation or cure as to have two edges which are opposite to one another and which are curved outwardly over at least a major part of their lengths both with respect to one another and to the centre point of the support, at least a part of each of said four rigid members having become embedded in or bonded to said elastomeric material at the corners of said sheet during said vulcanisation or cure.

In one embodiment, said sheet has been so shaped during vulcanisation or cure as to have four edges of which opposite pairs are curved outwardly over at least a major portion of their lengths with respect both to one another and to the centre point of the sheet.

In another embodiment, said sheet has been so shaped during vulcanisation or cure as to have two edges which are opposite to one another and which are curved outwardly over at least a major portion of their lengths both with respect to one another and to the centre point of the support, and as to have two other edges which are dissimilar in plan profile, the first of said other two edges being curved outwardly over at least a major portion of its length with respect to the centre point of the support and at least a part of the second of said other two edges being nearer said centre point than any part of the first of said other two edges.

The present invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 illustrates diagrammatically the preferred embodiment of upholstery support made according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 illustrates the support of FIGURE 1 mounted upon a frame under tension;

FIGURE 3 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 4 illustrates the embodiment of FIGURE 3 mounted upon a frame under tension;

FIGURES 5 and 6 illustrate, respectively, a platform at rest (tension not applied) and said platform under tension;

FIGURE 7 illustrates an underside plan View of one manner in which diagonal bracing of a support in accordance with the present invention may be effected; and

FIGURES 8 and 9 illustrate diagrammatically sections along a diagonal in for example FIGURE 1 of two different further alternative embodiments of support according to the invention.

Referring now to FIGURES 1 and 2 there is illustrated an upholstery support 10 which is in the form of a moulded sheet .of natural and/ or synthetic elastomer. The sheet has four edges 11, '12, 13, '14 of which opposite pairs are curved outwardly, both with respect to one another and to the centre point 15 of the sheet. It will be seen that each curved edge terminates at each end thereof in a corner region 16, there being four corner regions in all, each identical with the other. In the embodiment illustrated, each of the corner regions is provided with a means which will permit said support to be removably attached to a frame, said means consisting of a first device (D-piece) 17 of which a part is encircled by, embedded in or bonded to the elastomer of which the sheet is made. Said means 17 are complementary to a second device (hook) 18 fixed to a frame 19. It will be seen from FIGURE 1 that, as manufactured, the support has edges having quite a pronounced curvature which is straightened out or eliminated when the support is mounted on the frame under tension as illustrated in FIGURE 2.

Referring to FIGURE 3, an upholstery support 30 has opposite edges 31, 32 curved to quite a considerable extent outwardly with respect both to one another and to a centre point 33, a third edge 34 having a slight outward curvature with respect to said centre point 33 but the fourth edge of which is not curved as are the other edges. Indeed, the edge 35 is so shaped that the middle portion of the edge is closer to the centre point 33 than is any point on the edge 34. This construction is useful in the sort of seat in which it is undesirable that the users legs should encounter a hard front edge, for example in the driving seat of a car or in a seat employing a rigid frame and very thin cushions to give the article the so-called Scandinavian appearance. It will be noted from FIGURE 4 that the slightly curved edge 34 has become straightened out. In the drawing of FIGURE 4 the edges 31, 32 have been shown as being still curved when the support has been mounted under tension, the curvature of the mounted support matching that of the frame but, depending on the users requirements, the edges 31, 32 could have been straightened out.

It will be appreciated that instead of the triangular D- pieces 17 used in both illustrated embodiments of the invention, it would be possible to use a straight length of rod or wire in accordance with the disclosure of our copending patent applications No. 537,846 filed Mar. 28, 1966, and No. 539,897 filed Apr. 4, 1966, in accord-ance with each of which the length of rod or Wire at each corner region could be embedded in or bonded to the elastomet during moulding but, of course, any corner region of the supports made in accordance with the present invention could be moulded in such a manner that a sleeper rod would be removed after moulding had been completed in order to leave a bore through which a length of rod or wire could be pushed as desired. This bore could be lined with a sleeve (for example of metal) which would be left behind when the sleeper rod is withdrawn.

It will be seen that the support of FIGURES 3 and 4 has been made with a centrally located portion of which the boundary line has been marked 36. This centrally located portion and the surrounding peripheral portion 37 may be made in the same manner (as regards thickness, shape and other characteristics) as the centrally located portions of the various embodiments of support described and illustrated in our co-pending patent application No. 35,548 of 1962.

The dimensions of the bowed or curved side or sides of any platform can be designed to be such that, under tension, the side or sides will become straight or substantially so. The relevant formulae, set out below, are to be found in standard pocket or other reference books for engineers and the like or can be worked out by means of suitable application of the value of one or more constants to better known formulae:

l length of circular arc r radius of circle ot=angle subtending said circular arc c=length of chord hzheight of segment of circle v=versed sin.

Referring now to FIGURE 7, there is illustrated an upholstery support 49 having means 41 located at each corner and embedded in or bonded to the elastomeric material of the support. Each side of the support is illustrated as being curved over the major part of its length, the curved parts terminating in straight-line portions 42. The curvature of the sides may, of course, be extended so as to terminate substantially at the junction point of said sides with the straight-line portion 43.

The support is moulded with diagonal bracing elements 44 which extend from the corner regions of the support towards the central region 45. The elements 44 do not extend across said central region 45 but each element 44 is connected to adjacent elements 44 by portions 46 thereby defining a central region which is circular in plan configuration. The elements 44 and the connecting portions 46 are of greater thickness than the portions thereof indicated by the reference numerals 47, 48. The curved edges are formed as edge portions 49 which define or bound portions 50, the edge portions 49 being of the same thickness as the elements 44 and portions 46. The central region 45 and the portions 50 are of the same thickness as the portions 47, 48, and this thickness may be, for example, of the order of one quarter of the thickness of the elements 44 and portions 46.

The shape in plan of the elements 44 (for example whether parallel-sided or having sides containing a greater angle than that illustrated) may be varied, as also may the shape and disposition in the elements 44 of the portions 47, 48.

Other variations of support are possible. Thus, a support having outwardly curved sides may be made in which the thickness is greatest at or in the vicinity of the periphery and is progressively or uniformly reduced to a minimum at the centre (or at a central region) of the support. This modification can be of great importance as it tends to prevent attack of the elastomeric material by ozone which is most likely to take place in those zones where there is a change in thickness of material accompanied by concentration of tensile stresses. Such zones are thus found in the vicinity of the points (in FIGURE 3) where the chain-line diagonals cross the boundary line 36. Thus, referring to FIGURES 8 and 9, which each represent diagrammatically a section on one of the diagonals in for example FIGURE 1, there are illustrated two ways of avoiding pronounced steps where the thickness of the support changes from a first value to a second and greater value. In FIGURE 8, the support is illustrated as having thickened bosses 60 at the corners, D-pieces or triangular pieces 61 having parts thereof embedded in or bonded to the elastomeric material. The thickness of the elastomeric material decreases uniformly from points 62 to the centre point 63. Thus, the support of FIGURE 8 (ignoring the presence of the bosses 60) is of greatest thickness at its periphery and is of least thickness at its centre, decrease in thickness being as uniform as possible from the periphery to the centre, or being uniform in some cross-sections of the support (for example in cross-section taken along planes lying at 45 to the diagonals in FIG- URE 1) and non-uniform in others (for example in crosssections taken along the diagonals in FIGURE 1). Referring to FIGURE 9, the thickness of the support is substantially constant from points 64 to points 65 and decreases uniformly from points 65 to the centre point 66. All of the points 65 on the support describe a circle and the portion of the support limited by all of the points 64 on the one hand and all of the points 65 on the other hand constitutes a continuous peripheral portion. In the zones which are located between said points 64 and 65 and which are located in the vicinities of the corners of the support the support may be provided with portions which are similar to the portions 47, 48 of FIGURE 7. The upper surfaces of the supports (as seen in FIGURES 8 and 9) are substantially planar.

It is to be understood that the thickness of elastomeric material in all of the supports illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 7 is greatest at the corners where the D-pieces or triangular pieces are embedded in or bonded to the said material. The material at these regions is formed into a thickened boss similar to the bosses 60 shown in FIG- URES 8 and 9 because the corner regions have to be capable of withstanding the tension applied thereto whether the support is supporting a load or not.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A resilient upholstery support of an elastomeric material including four peripheral portions and a centrally located portion integral with one another and defining a one-piece construction, the outer edges of said peripheral portions having substantially greater thicknesses than that of said centrally located portion, said support comprising a substantially flat sheet in its free form with one face thereof substantially planar, four spaced bosses of said elastomeric material integral with said peripheral portions, four suspension means separate from and secured to said bosses, each of said suspension means including a part which is moulded in one of said bosses, at least two of said outer edges being located upon opposite sides of said centrally located portion being curved outwardly both with respect to one another and to the centre point of the support, said curved edges extending between two of said bosses over substantially the entire distance between said bosses.

2. A support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the four outer edges are curved outwardly with respect to the centre point of the support, those outer edges which are located on opposite sides of the centrally located portion being also curved outwardly with respect to one another, said curved edges extending over substantially the entire distance between the respective bosses.

3. A support as claimed in claim 1, wherein two of said outer edges which are located on opposite sides of said centrally located portion are curved outwardly both with respect to one another and to the centre point of the support, the other two outer edges being dissimilar in plan profile, the first outer edge being curved outwardly with respect to the centre point of the support, at least a part of the second other outer edge being nearer said centre point than any part of the first other outer edge, said curved edges extending over substantially the entire distance between the respective bosses.

4. A support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the other face of said support has formed therein a depression which constitutes said centrally located portion, and wherein said other face has formed therein four further depressions which create tour eccentric portions, each further depression being located in one of said peripheral portions and being of dimensions and plan configuration such as to define on the one hand a bead extending over at least a major part of the length of the respective curved edge and on the other hand a connecting portion located between said bead and said centrally located portion, any adjacent two of said further depressions defining a diagonally directed member, said member being connected to each of the two adjacent connecting portions, the centrally located portion and the four eccentric portions being of substantially equal thicknesses which are less than the substantially equal thickness of said beads and said diagonally directed members and said connecting portions.

5. A support as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least one depression is formed in each diagonally directed member to form a portion having a thickness substantially equal to the thicknesses of said centrally located portion and said eccentric portions, said depression being substantially diagonally directed.

6. A support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the other face of the support has formed therein a depression which constitutes said centrally located portion, the thickness of said centrally located portion being greatest at the junctions between said peripheral portions and said centrally located portion and being least at substantially the centre of said centrally located portion, the decrease from said greatest thickness to said least thickness being uniform.

7. A support as claimed in claim 6, wherein said centrally located portion has an area which is greater than two-thirds of the area of the support.

8. A support as claimed in claim 7, wherein at least four depressions are formed in said peripheral portions to form four portions having thicknesses substantially equal to said least thickness of the centrally located portion, each of said four depressions being located in the vicinity of said bosses and being substantially diagonally directed.

9. A support as claimed in claim 1, wherein said peripheral portions and said centrally located portion are integral but in such a manner that the transition from said peripheral portions to said centrally located portion is not noticeable, the thickness of the elastomeric material being greatest (except for said bosses) at said curved outer edges and being least at substantially the centre of the support, said bosses having thicknesses greater than any other part of said support.

10. A support as claimed in claim 9, wherein the decrease from said greatest thickness to said least thickness is uniform.

11. A support as claimed in claim 9, wherein the decrease from said greatest thickness to said least thickness is uniform in some cross-sections of the support and is non-uniform in other cross-sections of the support.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,488,728 1l/l949 Kopplin 160-371 3,037,766 6/1962 Berg 267- 3,125,156 3/1964 Grimshaw -327 X 3,208,085 9/1965 Grirnshaw 297-452 X 3,2l7,786 ll/l965 Earl 160404 DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. P. C. KANNAN, Assistant Examiner, 

